


A Black Armband

by orphan_account



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Angst, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-31
Updated: 2011-12-31
Packaged: 2017-12-18 05:59:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/876429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Buffy dies in a car crash Giles has to break the news to their daughter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Black Armband

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [No Fairytale](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/24363) by LittleOtter73. 



> Thank you Kate for allowing me to play in your sandbox with this fic.

There was light, light and a screaming tear of metal, then the world was spinning around him, around them. Suddenly it stopped and the lights went out.

“Buffy!” Giles screamed, kicking free of the metal shell around him, heedless of the pain. Finally he kicked the door open and stumbled out onto the road. His hair was matted with his own blood but he didn’t care, all he could see was Buffy lying in the road and all he could feel was anger and loss. Crying her name again he stumbled forward and knelt beside her on the road.

“Buffy.” He whispered, stroking her face. Tears started to fall down his face. Then, she opened her eyes.

“Giles.” She croaked, the word flecking her lips with blood.

Giles head snapped up and he looked her in the eyes, “Buffy. Oh god Buffy.” He said softly.

“I feel, so, so, cold.” She whispered.

At that Giles let out an anguished cry and lifted her head so it rested upon his knees before pulling off his jacket and draping it over her bloodied body. She looked so small. So helpless.

Buffy reached her hand up and cupped his jaw. “I love you Giles.” She whispered and Giles nodded, sight obscured by tears. He placed his hand loosely over hers, his large fingers dwarfing hers.

“I love you too Buffy. I always have, and I always will.” His voice started to thicken and break. “We could have done so much.” He croaked, “So so much. It shouldn’t be like this. Not a car crash.”

Buffys eyes flickered and she smiled softly, “But it has to be this way Giles. You promised. No more resurrections.”

Giles nodded, stroking her face.

Buffys breaths grew shorter, “Goodbye my love.” She whispered, “Tell Kate, Tell her that-” But before she could finish her body shuddered and she lay still, her final message unsaid.

Giles slowly lowered her hand to her side and sobbed as the whine of the ambulance grew near.

***

When he got back to their home that night he stumbled to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. He was covered in blood and grime, he should wash. He had to wash but that would mean removing the final part of Buffy from him. To lose her, forever.

Giles slammed his head into the mirror in anguish. At the thump there came a small voice from outside the doorway.

“Daddy?” Kate said, “Daddy are you ok?”

Giles looked up. “Yes Katie,” He croaked. “Could you call Auntie Willow and tell her to get Uncle Xander and come over?”

Kate nodded, “Yes Daddy.” She said, starting towards the phone before pausing, “When is Mummy going to come back?” She asked.

Giles pinched his nose to stem the tears. “I don’t know sweetie.” He whispered, turning on the water.

***

Willow and Xander arrived ten minutes later to find Giles sitting on the sofa with wet hair and a glass of whiskey having sent Kate to bed five minutes earlier.

“Whats up G-man?” Xander called out playfully before seeing the pain on his face. “Shit.” He whispered as Willow dashed forward.

“Giles?”she asked, “What’s wrong? Where’s Buffy?”

Giles cried out then, a primal roar of pain and anguish before throwing the glass against the wall. Then after standing there for a moment he just collapsed onto the floor and cradled his head in his hands. After a moment he looked up to find them standing in front of him, “Dead.” He whispered, “A car crash. Drunk driver.” He paused as their faces fell “She went straight through the windscreen. There was nothing-” he broke off into a sob, “Nothing I could do.”

Willow stood there in shock. Tears starting to trickle down her face, “does Dawn know?” she whispered.

Giles shook his head. “Neither does Kate.”

***

The funeral was held three days later. Giles and Xander were the front two coffin bearers and stiff faced they carried Buffy from the church. For the whole way Kate held tightly onto her father’s hand, her face streaked with tears. Hundreds turned out to say goodbye. Everyone buffy had ever saved came to pay their respects. Demons stood in hooded jackets at the back and in the shade of a large gazebo stood Angel and Spike.

***

From that day on Giles always wore a black armband in memory of Buffy and he and Kate visited her grave every week and he would tell her stories of everything her mother had done. Even when he grew old and Kate had left home he would still wear the black armband and make the weekly trip down to the graveside and lay flowers on the soft earth. When he died at the age of eighty-one he was buried beside her according to his last wishes. Kate led the funeral procession and many, many hundreds turned out to see him buried. For Rupert Giles was the man who would go down in history for winning the Nobel Prize for peace and the Nobel Prize for literature in the same year.


End file.
